what percentage of the worlds population lives in democracy?

Answer 1

It does depend on your definition of democracy. At one extreme, if you say that a democracy is any country that elects its governments and where people can stand against those chosen by the governing party, then the answer is about 3 1/2 billion. All or nearly all of Oceania, the Americas, Europe, and South and East Asia apart from China are in, along with some countries in Africa and a few in SW and Central Asia. The non-democracies are only China and N Korea, Cuba, Belarus, the military dictatorships of Africa, and most of the Arab countries. (Also for the moment Pakistan and Thailand, but both are special situations.)

If on the other hand you make a definition to include only countries with free and fair elections then you might exclude some countries (e.g. Zimbabwe); if you exclude countries with political restrictions on who can stand for office you might exclude Iran; if you exclude countries where citizenship depends on race not just residence you can exclude Israel; if you exclude countries where the elected authority is not fully soveriegn you might cut out Iraq; and what about countries such as the USA and Russia where you seem to need money (in practice, even if not in theory) to stand for high office?

Answer 2

A tiny amount! I am in the UK and we here have a republic i.e. we appoint people to make decisions for us, ministers, police, fire brigade, etc.

Shocking eh?